The United States Attorney's Office in the District of Oregon announced this week that two men were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. One of the men posed as a player for the San Francisco 49ers and ran a scheme that defrauded at least 26 women of more than $1.3 million. The FBI believes there are "many more" victims.
Daejon Labrayae Love, 35, and Taylor Jamie Chan, 18, were arrested on Aug. 24 in Idaho. Love pretended to be the star athlete, while Chan posed as his financial adviser. The two created fictitious investments for a plot that dated back to 2022 and defrauded women in four states: California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Investigators say Love met most of his victims on dating apps and used several names, including Jon Love, Daejon Love, Avril Lyto Love and Jordan Love, to continue his scheme.
Prosecutors also shared an Instagram profile that appears to belong to Love, which had "NFL Wide Receiver @49ers #undrafted" in the bio.
Most of the pictures on this profile included a man wearing 49ers gear. There are images with exotic cars and videos of him working out on a beach in a 49ers helmet.
"The scheme relied on Love's creation of fictitious personas and display of a lavish lifestyle which Love presented to victims both in person and on social media websites," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. "Love convinced many of the victims they were in sincere romantic relationships with Love, that he was a sophisticated investor, and that Chan was his investment adviser who helped Love grow a fortune worth tens of millions of dollars."
Chan and Love would create investment opportunities and convince victims over three-way FaceTime calls to send them money, showing falsified investment gains. If the victims did not have money to invest, Love would sometimes urge them to take out loans. If the victims ran out of money to invest or asked too many questions, Love would block them so they had no way of communicating with him.
Love traveled to New Mexico, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Idaho in the months of July and August, and was arrested along with Chan at the Boise Airport. The FBI discovered Love was in Idaho to meet new victims.
